Text Size

-

+

reset

Acting IRS commissioner dodges questions

Holder orders IRS investigation

“The inappropriate and changing criteria may have led to inconsistent treatment of organizations applying for tax-exempt status,” according to the report prepared by the Treasury inspector general for tax administration.

The criteria led to “substantial delays in processing certain applications and allowed unnecessary information requests to be issued,” the report says.

IRS employees also inappropriately requested the political affiliations of members of the groups seeking nonprofit designation.

The inspector general pushed back against claims by the IRS that the problems surrounding the scandal have been fixed.

“Although the IRS has taken some action,” the inspector general wrote, “it will need to do more so that the public has reasonable assurance that applications are processed without unreasonable delay in a fair and impartial manner in the future.”

In its response to the IRS inspector general report, the agency denied that employees targeted conservative groups because of political bias. Still, the agency said mistakes occurred due to the lack of a process for handling spikes in applications and “insufficient sensitivity to the implications of some of the decisions made.”

“We believe the front-line career employees that made the decisions acted out of a desire for efficiency and not out of any political or partisan viewpoint,” Joseph Grant, acting commissioner for the tax-exempt division, wrote in a letter included in the report.

Grant blamed the delays on employees struggling to keep up with the a flood of new 501(c)(4) applicants in recent years.

Many of the new organizations that applied either planned to engage in or appeared to be related to political campaigns, according to a response filed by Grant. The number of 501(c)(4) applicants more than doubled between 2008 and 2012, the agency said.